Cluster hiring initiatives for Indigenous and Black faculty

On July 29 the following email was shared with graduate students

To: All employees and graduate students

From: James Rush, vice-president, academic & provost

Date: Thursday, July 29, 2021

Subject: Cluster hiring initiatives for Indigenous and Black faculty

• The University is taking a step in addressing the systemic underrepresentation of Indigenous and Black faculty at our institution
• Recruitment is open for 10 new Indigenous and 10 Black faculty members

I am pleased to announce the launch of new cluster hiring initiatives at Waterloo which will see the addition of ten Indigenous and ten Black faculty members across our institution. These initiatives are one step in addressing the underrepresentation of Indigenous faculty and Black faculty across the University of Waterloo.

Key facts:

Recruitment is open now and will continue until all positions are successfully filled, there is no set timeline for the initiative (meaning that If candidates are found immediately, the cluster will be hired immediately).

• Positions are open at the assistant professor, associate professor and professor levels, with the intention to recruit faculty at a range of career stages. At least half of the positions will occur at the assistant professor rank.
• Positions will be available for broad areas of research across all Faculties.
• These cluster hiring initiatives are in addition to other equity-based hiring initiatives and are not meant to replace other opportunities.
• The fundamental purpose of the cluster hiring initiatives is to increase representation of Black and Indigenous faculty across the spectrum of Waterloo’s teaching and scholarship activities; while there may be some natural synergies with the current development of academic programming in the areas of Black Studies and Indigenous Studies, the cluster initiatives are not intended to recruit solely/primarily for these areas.
• As a restricted hiring opportunity, the cluster hiring initiative follows the provisions for a special program as described by the Ontario Human Rights Commission in order to address the underrepresentation of Indigenous and Black academics, which has been found to be systemic in nature.

My office is working collaboratively with a variety of key stakeholders who have views and expertise that must be respected in increasing the representation of Black and Indigenous faculty to ensure effective recruitment, selection and onboarding of new faculty and I would like thank all those who have been involved in this process thus far and who will be in the future.

You can find more detailed information on the hiring process and answers to frequently asked questions at https://uwaterloo.ca/provost/cluster-hiring-initiatives.

We remain committed to creating a sustainable and supportive environment for living, learning, working and discovery. These new roles are an important step among many necessary in realizing the goal of accelerating the representation of Black and Indigenous faculty.

Sincerely,

James Rush